Ghar Maut

At last the Endless Stair...or not

The adventurers wandered into Ghar Maut, journeying to the north where the massive 20’ corridor turned into a T and started going east and west.

In the corridor heading north, they encountered a wandering beetle swarm. THey were able to avoid it by ducking into a nearby room, and listened while the swarm wandered on looking for more available prey.

Going through the rooms to the north, including the one with beautiful falling autumn leaves, they encountered a Grey Ooze. Quickly dispatching it, they took the 270 gold and 31 platinum pieces that were strewn on the floor, presumably from previous victims.

Circling around, they began to head south, encountering a magical room that had indecipherable runes scrawled in black ink on the walls. Feeling uneasy, the party continued to the south west.

The room to the southwest had a thin layer of water flowing along the floor that caused many in the party to lose 1 IQ for an indeterminable amount of time. Not wanting to see if the effect increased after more time in the water, the party continued to the South.

The South room had a group of surly, but not altogether antagonistic dwarves. After a little discussion and bargaining, the party paid the Dwarves to show them where the Endless Stair was.

The dwarves took them out to the 20’ corridor (Hereafter referred to as the “thoroughfare”) and about 200’ to the east, the endless stair begins.

The endless stair is a perfectly ordinary looking 15’ wide stone staircase that goes, as the dwarves indicated, “All the way to the bottom”. Looking down, the party could see doors coming off the staircase every do often as is dove straight into the depths.

The party followed it for a few 10s of feet before seeing Trolls coming up the stair. Using a rare amount of discretion, they second level characters decided to retreat back up to the first level of the dungeon.

They decided to head back to town, and encountered a Gargoyle on the Thoroughfare. It was a tough-fought battle, but a combination of enhanced kitty power, Buzz’ brawn, and lots of spells from the mages managed to bring it down.

This was a quick adventure, marked by Buzz’s unwillingness to sit around talking.

Present:

Heinrick

Hart

Zoltan

Taq

Amelia (with Christine)

Buzz

After avoiding (partially killing an partially running away from) a Cockroach Swarm, the party headed north to the 20’ intersection in the dungeon. Heading west they hit the first door and dealt with a party of Zombies. That room had a tapestry with a map of a few rooms of the dungeon.

Buzz got bored and hit the door to the north, bursting into a storm of falling leaves, that came from the ceiling and collected on the floor, without making a sound and without ever getting too deep.

While other contemplated the beauty of an autumn day, Buzz hit the iron reinforced door to the east (which did not give) and turned North again, where the door was more amenable.

That door showed a little nasty humanoid creature, which Buzz charged. It looked at Buzz, gave him the finger, then vanished. The wall had some lettering in white chalk that no one could decipher. Kruth carefully copied them down on a piece of parchment and the party ended for the night.

I didn’t post this on time, but there is one piece of information that was critical:

The party ran into a wandering group of tentacled humanoids (“Bathalians”). After an exchange of web spells, the Bathalians withdrew. But not before some of the heroes noticed that one of the Bathalians had some thin wisps of red hair on its head.

Why the 20' corridor is dangerous, and should be moved through quickly

The party started out near the Merking’s territory and decided to head north to see if they could discover where the werebear came from. They explored some rooms and were dismayed to find the rope that Blank tied to the door was missing. THey stared at the tapestry into which their recent companion had disappeared several days ago and decided to continue on.

Some searching in the room with “Winter Wonderland” got them nothing.

They had an encounter with a darkmantle that they handled easily, but realized that they should head out of the dungeon to rest and heal. This almost became their undoing.

Near the fountain, they spotted a hydra. Unfortunately, the hydra spotted them about the same time they saw it. Apparently their sneaking was no match for its 5 heads.

The battle was touch-and-go but eventually the party succeeded in dispatching it. Taq headed back to town to get healing potions while the rest of the party began to loot the hydra. They had not gotten further than prying off a two scales before they heard flapping in the distance.

Not thinking they could prevail again, well anything, they retreated again to the protection of the Merking. For the small cost of a few Hydra scales, he allowed them to stay and rest while they waited a day for their friend to return.

Return he did, everyone healed, and headed north to check out some new rooms. A new room with a cistern was interesting but ultimately unrewarding. So they headed through the stinky room and into a corridor. Past a few doors and a portcullis, they encountered a shadow. It was almost their undoing, but they finally banished it and retreated to the stinky room to lick their wounds and wait for their strength to return.

Why Searching for Secret Doors is Dangerous

finished catching their breath on the doorstep of the dungeon and once again plunged back in. They traveled down the 20’ corridor, heading to the first rooms on the left.

Before they got there, they saw what appeared to be a golem or some other enchanted creature coming their way. They decided for once to use discretion, and ducked through the door into the room they were heading for. After some tense moments waiting while the golem tested the door, they could hear it move away and they could move on.

They worked their way through the room with webs and into a large room where they had fought Urdefhan several hours before. There was still one door that they hadn’t opened before.

That door opened into a 20′×30′ room that had no other obvious exit. Hart immediately set to work checking for secret doors while Buzz kept watch in the large room and the rest of the party whiled away time.

Buzz was surprised by two arrows that flew at him out of the darkness at the far end of the room, beyond where his torchlight reached. Before he could react, he was in fierce combat with two hobgoblins who had decided that a lone fighter was easy pickings. They made good account of themselves and sorely wounded Buzz. But as the rest of the party found angles of attack, the sheer weight of numbers worked against the Hobgoblins. When one of them dropped, the other tried to flee. He was dropped in his tracks.

The party searched the bodies and recovered a little money and equipment. They also realized that there was a hidden trapdoor in one end of the Urdefhan room, which they had not seen before. Remembering Heirich’s experience with the poison frogs, they opened it carefully, finding a sack with some valuable items (silver chess set, hand mirror and ivory bowl carved with animals).

They headed back to the main corridor, waiting for it to be clear of sound before stepping out. They wandered directly across the corridor to a complex of rooms. Heading north, they encountered a Steam Mephit that appeared to know they were coming (several noisy attempts to open the door probably had something to do with it). The Mephit had called help, and the room had a magical effect that slowed characters within it.

The party had a true fight on their hands, with characters sorely hurt before the original Mephiy abandoned its summoned companion and ran through the door the party originally entered. The last Mephit was finally dispatched and the party found a few coins. What started as disappointment at the meager horde turned into celebration when they realized that there were over 30 pieces of platinum there.

The party moved back out to the doorstep of the dungeon to heal and lick their wounds.

The action starts with our heroes resting in the cavern approach to Ghar-Maut.

After catching their wind, resting for spells, and recovering their bravery, the party once again pried open the huge double doors and proceeded down the corridor into the heart of Ghar Maut.

They taunted the Hound Archon that was standing guard in the corridor and found that not only did he have no sense of humor, but he also packed quite a punch. Zoltan was singled out as one “Who shall not pass.” But after some skillful negotiations and a little grovelling, they all could once again pass.

They t raveled up to explore the 20’ corridor more fully. An empty room lead them to a room that reeked of manure. Heinrich discovered why when he tripped a trap that dropped him 10’ into scummy water infested with killed frogs. Unfortunately the trapdoor closed automatically on him. Several minutes of heavy pounding (and the strategic use of a pocket ram by Blank) allowed the party to free him before he became frog dinner.

The pocket ram came in handy more than once to open stuck doors.

In the room with the frog trap there was also the ghostly image of a paladin guarding what looked like a ghostly locked treasure door. Blank decided to investigate, but the chilling touch of the guard decided him that there was probably easier treasure elsewhere.

After resting in the room south of the 20’ corridor fountain, the party decided to try the rooms just to the west. The first of these had nothing except a stuck door to the south and a door that opened to the west into a room with ventilation grills in it and another door to the south.

Heading south, the party had the fight of its life against 4 Urgefhan. Several party members went down, but ultimately the group prevailed.

Character Creation and Dipping Into the Dungeon

Present:

Mike (Heinrich)

Rich (Kruth)

Doug (Amelia)

Fisher (Zoltan)

Rob (Hart)

Pete (Buzz)

The first order of business was character creation. I’ll have to spotlight the characters when I find my notes. We have a Cleric (healer), Wizard, Druid, Sorcerer, Rogue, and Fighter. A little light in the “meat shield” department, and very magic-heavy, but the additional players will likely even things out.

Play started when Penelope Grizold, a 15-year old daughter of the city with long dark red hair, went missing. Her bedroom window had been forced open and tracks indicated that she had been dragged by some king of humanoids toward the north — the rumored direction of Ghar-Maut dungeon.

Our trusty heroes immediately jumped into action to follow. Heading out the main gate, over the south river dam, they followed a goat path that they hoped would lead them to young Penelope. They only hoped that they would not be too late.

After scouting the woods and following tracks, they took up the trail again when they saw footprints in the fresh mud alongside a stream. Following that swollen steam up into the hills, where the sides of the stream became deeper and more steeply cut.

After a few hours travel they came on a place where the left bank had slid, partially blocking the stream and revealing the dark opening of a cave mouth.

Entering in, they were immediately confronted with the flickering image of a horned skull that spoke cryptic words to them then disappeared.

They found the cavern entry to be roughly circular, about 60’ across, with the far half raised about 10’ above the side they came in. A ramp along either wall gave access to the higher area, and the middle of the cavern was a rough pit that dropped further than they could see. On the far wall they saw 20’ wide double doors that had been broken off their hinges and propped back into position.

Coming up from the pit, they felt a damp wind, on which some characters could taste a trace of salt and others believed they could hear waves as if of a sea far off.

Before the characters could explore much, they were attacked by a Dark Creeper, which was dispatched will only minor injuries.

Opening the massive doors, the party came into a 20’ wide corridor that led off into the darkness. After traveling some 50’ along it, they came on an indented door on the right side which gave to a small room that housed a Dretch Demon. They party had more trouble dispatching this monster, but eventually destroyed it and took its treasure.

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.